WWE RAW 11/19/2007

– We are off and running…literally, as we see some guy running down a street carrying a torch. And then we cut right to our opening animation. We head inside the arena and JR welcomes us to Ft. Lauderdale, where we are live! JR is flying solo for now as the King will be in competition. Ross is just finishing his intro as “Sexy Boy” fires up and the Heartbreak Kid heads to the ring. Michaels grabs the mike but waits for the raucous “HBK” chant to die down. He says he has no excuses and that the better man won last night. He then invites Orton to the ring so he can shake his hand. The Champ appears on the Titantron and says he will not be coming to the ring. Randy’s face is all bruised up from the Superkick last night. Orton doesn’t trust Michaels, and HBK validates that mistrust by saying he was planning on kicking him again. He said that he was going to challenge him to a rematch first. Orton says he isn’t coming to the ring and says that Michaels isn’t interested in another match, just interested in ending his career. Randy says he proved he is the better man by having beaten Michaels, Triple H and taking out Cena. He says he won’t dignify the challenge with a response. Orton says that the marathon runner is running from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale to signify the changing of the guard and the passing of the torch to Orton. He tells Michaels that he had his chance and now it is over. Michaels puts the mike down, but is interrupted by Mr. Kennedy…Kennedy, who is power walking to the ring. The two men stare down and Michaels attacks first, clotheslining him to the floor. Kennedy drags him out and the two trade blows on the floor. Kennedy whips Michaels hard into the post and then rolls into the ring and grabs the mike. He tells Michaels that he had his shot and that it is his turn, but HBK pulls him out and clothesline him down. Now Shawn is back in the ring and tells Kennedy that he has to deal with him now. Kennedy climbs the ring steps, but walks back to the floor and grabs another mike. Kennedy says nicknames like Showstopper are given, not chosen, so he shouldn’t flatter himself. He says that Michaels is best known for losing an epic ladder match, losing to John Cena at Wrestlemania, losing his smile. He tells Shawn that he is a loser. Commissioner Regal heads out and makes a match for right now, calling a ref to the ring and then calling for the bell. We head to break but will have this match when we return.

1) Shawn Michaels and Mr. Kennedy fight to a No Contest

We head back from commercial to see Michaels and Kennedy fighting down the ramp and around ringside. JR tells us that the bell has not rung yet. The two men brawl around the ring and then eventually spill over into the crowd. Kennedy clothesline Michaels back over the railing, but HBK recovers to smash Kennedy into the table. Kennedy rams Michaels back first into the apron as Mike Chioda yells at Kennedy to get in the ring so he can start the match. Kennedy shoots Michaels in the ring and then grabs a chair. He gets on the apron, but Michaels superkicks the chair into Kennedy’s face, sending him crashing to the floor. Michaels’ music is on and it looks like we won’t get a real match. Kennedy is recovering on the floor as Michaels taunts him from the ring. Grade: N/A

– We are back and JR does a quick recap of last night’s events and thanks us for watching and he also thanks the Hives for providing the official Survivor Series theme song. And speaking of theme songs, we now hear the best one in the business as we are ready for our next match.

2) Jerry Lawler defeats Santino Marella with a Backslide

As Santino heads to the ring, we take a quick look at last week’s events where Lawler upset Marella. The King heads down and has his tights with him this week. JR recaps Marella’s miracle IC title run from earlier in the year. The bell rings and Marella tells the ref the Piledriver should be banned for this match. The ref asks Lawler and he obliges. King hits a dropkick to catch Santino off guard. The two lock up and Lawler pushes Santino to the corner. Marella reverses it and buries his shoulder to the King’s gut. Lawler turns things around and fires some punches to Santino but then misses a charge and hits the ring post. Marella hits an armbar takedown and then stomps away. Santino goes to the second rope and lands a diving headbutt to the arm of the King. Marella goes to ringside and puts on Lawler’s crown. He grabs the mike and says “Look at me, I am Jerry Stupid Lawler.” He then tells JR that he will whip his friend like a “government dog” and says if he likes “knockerslobbers” he should keep watching the ring. Santino says that he is “The King” and that he loves all sorts of puppies. He says then punctuates that with “I like to make fun of women because I have no self esteem”. Lawler takes Santino down and then fires him into the ropes. Santino goes for a hip toss, but Lawler reverses to a backslide for another upset win. Lawler gets to his feet, but Randy Orton flies into the ring and crushes Lawler with an RKO. Grade: 1.5

– The crowd is showering boos on the Champ as Randy grabs the mike. He apologizes to Lawler and says he couldn’t help himself. We get an update on the status of the torch runner and take a look at the Titantron. The runner is running by the arena that Orton won the match at last night. Orton says the torch passing will go down tonight and then heads to the back as we go to break.

– As the ads are running I did some quick research and see that it is 25 miles from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale. So, assuming our marathon runner left Miami around 9:00, and if he keeps a healthy pace of just under a 5 minute mile, we should see him around 11:00 PM or so. He will have to be in pretty good shape, but he can get it done if he really wants to.

– We return and see the marathon runner continuing on his trek to Ft. Lauderdale. We go backstage and the Grish is with Mr. Kennedy. Kennedy says that all he did was go to the ring to show Shawn Michaels some respect, but that HBK superkicked a chair to his face instead. Kennedy asks Shawn why he would do that to him. He says it is because Michaels sees that his career is evaporating and that he sees talent in Kennedy that he hasn’t seen in years. He says that HBK wants to do everything in his power to hold him down, but that it won’t happen because Father Time catches up with everybody. He says next time they meet up Shawn won’t have to worry about Father Time, only Mr. Kennedy. That was a good promo and Kennedy showed some nice intensity. JR recaps the Hornswoggle vs. Khali from last night match and then takes us to some highlights. We head backstage and Mr. McMahon is discussing the PPV with Regal and Coach. Regal says his favorite part was watching Hornswoggle pace before his match. Coach says his favorite part was McMahon’s motivational speech. Vince doesn’t seem impressed as Coach and Regal continue to laugh at Little Mac’s misfortune. Coach says the icing was Finlay, but Vince interrupts him. We get a knock on the door and Carlito comes into the room. He says he is here to show his appreciation. He says he was raised on tough love and was always beaten around by his Dad when he messed up. Vince asks Carlito how tough he is. He says he is very tough, but Vince asks how tough he would be against a 4’4” McMahon. Vince makes a match for tonight: Hornswoggle vs. Carlito. Carlito laughs and shakes hands with Coach and Regal before heading off. Coach is still giggling until Vince stares at him and asks if he said something funny. The laughing stops and we head back into the arena.

Hardy is out first to his usual good sized pop as JR wonders if Hardy can survive his challenge tonight. We head to break before we start our title match. We return and Umaga is heading down to the ring to try and regain his IC title. Lawler has rejoined us at ringside and wants to know why Orton took him out. I actually enjoyed JR calling the action on his own. The bell rings and we are off. Umaga shoves Jeff back, but hardy fires off some punches and kicks. Umaga catches him with a headbutt, but dodges a dive and kicks Umaga to the floor. Hardy follows outside and they battle around ringside. Both men are back in and Hardy hits a low dropkick for 1. Jeff hits a flying forearm and then goes for a shoulderblock, but he bounces off Umaga and goes flying to the mat. Umaga stomps on Jeff and then drags him to his feet. Jeff tries to punch Umaga, but he is slugged back to the mat. Umaga locks on the nerve hold to slow Hardy down. JR recaps Hardy’s week, as he endured a lot of punishment on every show. Jeff tries to fight out of the nerve hold and is able to fight to his feet. He elbows out of the hold, but Umaga just slams him back down and goes right back to the nerve hold. The crowd is rallying Jeff as he fights back up again. Umaga relents and then slams him headfirst to the buckle. Jeff seems to be out on his feet in the corner, but is able to move away from an Umaga charge. Umaga hits the post and then Hardy DDTs him. Jeff heads outside to head up top, but Umaga punches him, sending him to the floor as we go to break. And we are back and Umaga has gone back to his nerve hold to try and wear Hardy down some more. During the break, Umaga landed a nice flapjack to keep control. The crowd tries to rally Hardy again and he fights to his feet again. He elbows out and tries to slam Umaga, but he won’t budge. Jeff finally gets him up, but Umaga falls on top for 2 and then goes right back to the nerve hold. Lawler tells us that he heard that Umaga has been seething since losing to Jeff last night at Survivor Series. Jeff battles to his feet again, but Umaga puts him back down. That last nerve hold kind of killed the crowd. Jeff finally battles out but Umaga sends him right back down with a back body drop. Umaga hits a big Legdrop and follows up with a kneedrop for a close 2. Umaga picks Jeff up and then drills some stiff kicks to the gut and takes Jeff down with a jumping kick. Umaga gets a pair of 2 counts but Jeff won’t stay down. Umaga drags Hardy back up and then slugs him back down. Jeff rolls to the ring apron and is able to snap Umaga’s neck on the top rope. Hardy heads up top for a cross body, but Umaga catches him and just spikes him with a super nasty spinning release sidewalk slam. He goes for the cover and Jeff somehow manages to kick out. The crowd is back into it and cheering for Hardy. Umaga hits a springboard splash from the bottom rope and then goes back to the nerve hold. Jeff battles up again but runs into Umaga’s foot as he comes off the ropes. Umaga heads to the middle buckle and goes for a splash, but Hardy rolls out of the way. Both men are down and the ref is counting. Both men are up and Umaga catches Jeff with an uppercut, sending Hardy crashing into the corner. Umaga backs up and charges, but Jeff moves and Umaga crashes into the corner. Hardy leaps to the top and comes off with the Whisper in the Wind. He crawls over and gets a 2. He hits the ropes and slugs Umaga in the face and then the back. He goes for the Twist of Fate, but is shoved off. He hits the mule kick, but Umaga shoves him into the corner. Umaga charges and misses and falls to the mat. Jeff goes for the Swanton, but Umaga rolls out of the way. Umaga hits a Samoan Drop and goes for the Samoan Spike, but Jeff ducks out and lands the Twist of Fate. Umaga rolls outside, but Jeff hits a baseball slide dropkick and then dives out on top of him with a Plancha. The ref is counting, but Snitsky hits the ring and beats down Jeff to draw the DQ. Snitsky hits a clothesline and goes for the Pumphandle, but Jeff slips out. Umaga is back in and he lands the Spike to take Hardy down. Snitsky tosses Jeff to the floor, but Triple H’s music fires up and the Game is out. He crushes Snitsky with a clothesline and then trades blows with Umaga. Umaga hits the post on a charge and then eats a Spinebuster from Hunter. The crowd is off the hook as Trips sends Umaga to the floor. Snitsky attacks, but Hunter hits a facebuster and sends him to the floor as well. That was a really good match that told a fun story. Umaga kept wearing Hardy down, but whenever he went for the kill, Jeff just barely avoided it to stay alive. Umaga got more frustrated as the match wore on and Jeff finally gained some control before the DQ. The last 2 nerve holds almost killed the crowd off, but they won them back which was good to see. I also enjoy Triple H in the mid card as he freshens it up and adds some credibility everyone involved. Grade: 3.5

– JR runs down what just happened and then we get an abbreviated SAVE_US video to take us to break.

– We are back and we take a look at outside the Bank Atlantic Center. We look backstage and Hardy is thanking Hunter. The Grish asks the Game why he helped out Jeff. Hunter says he always helps out and that he is the Good Samaritan of Raw. Hunter sees that Grish isn’t buying it so he says that when you have guys like Umaga and Snitsky calling themselves badasses, he has to step up and prove that he is the true badass of Raw. Hunter says he and Hardy have nothing in common but respect. He then lets us know that he and Grisham have nothing in common either. Hunter says that when he goes clubbing in South Beach and sees a tranny, he heads the other way. However, the Grish apparently picked up a tranny of his own on South Beach last night, and Grish doesn’t deny it, saying he didn’t know at the time. Grish stammers through his explanation as we head to the ring.

4) Cody Rhodes defeats Hardcore Holly with a DDT

JR is confused as to why this match is happening, but says this doesn’t mean the team is broken up. The two lock up and we get a clean break. Holly lands some chops and then clubs away on Cody’s back. We get a staredown and Holly slugs Cody down and then hits a scoop slam. Holly goes to a reverse chinlock but Cody eventually fights up to his feet. Holly drills him and then hits some chops in the corner. Cody fires out with some punches and then hits a side Russian leg sweep for 2. Holly shoots him in and lands a big dropkick and then goes for the Alabama Slam. Cody slips down the back and hits a DDT to finally beat Holly. Cody gets to his feet, but Randy Orton slips in the ring and hits an RKO on Rhodes. Grade: 1.5

– Orton says that he knows he isn’t supposed to be here yet, but then he turns and hits Holly with an RKO as well. He picks up the mike and gives us another update on the Torch runner, who is just hitting Ft. Lauderdale. Orton says the torch is still burning and that it is only a matter of time before he gets the respect he deserves.

– We return from commercial and take a look back at our last segment and then head to JR and the King at ringside. JR tells that Orton has endorsed a tribute video of himself, which we now take a look at. We now go backstage where Finlay heads into McMahon’s dressing room. Vince yells out Finlay’s catchphrase and Fit tells him not to forget it. Vince says he doesn’t like surprises like the one he got last night. Finlay says the Irish are supposed to love surprises. Vince says he is just as Irish as Finlay, but Finlay cuts him off. He says he was born in Ireland and asks Vince where he was born. Vince dodges the question and invites Finlay out for a drink after the show. Vince asks Finlay if he is buying and Finlay says yes. He says he will have some whisky but he will buy Vince a big glass of warm milk, which is something someone his age should have before bed. Vince is in shock, but Finlay says he was just joking and Vince laughs as Fit takes off and we head to break.

– Back from break and we get a nice little Ric Flair video package telling us that Flair will be back on Raw live next week. JR congratulates Linda McMahon on being one of Cable World’s most powerful women in cable for 2007.

Jillian and Melina head to the ring and Melina successfully hits the split tonight. Melina grabs the mike and starts to talk, but Jillian grabs the mike. She says since they played Melina’s music, she gets to talk first. She says that we have a special guest in the arena tonight: Jon Secada, who gets a nice round of boos from the crowd. Jillian says that Jon is here supporting Lillian Garcia’s album, but Jon seems to have no clue what the hell is going on. Apparently Jon did a duet with Lillian, but he is lost out there. Jillian shits on Lillian a bit and tells Jon to hush and says that no one in Florida understands Mexican talk. She says that she will blow him and his producers away with her talent and then proceeds to sing some Gloria Estefan horribly. The crowd boos and Secada gives the thumbs down. Jillian says she can do rap, country and opera and then hits a really terrible high note. Jillian tells Lillian to follow that act and show everyone what it is like to be second best. Thankfully Mickie and Maria interrupt the festivities and our match is underway. Maria and Melina start things off as Melina hits a knee to the gut and a big clothesline. She then brings the Bronco Buster back to our lives, which excites the King. Melina trips up Maria and stomps on her back. Melina tags in Jillian and the holds down Maria. Jillian goes up top and attempts a 450 splash, but Maria moves and she lands hard on Melina. Mickie is in and hits a head scissors takedown. Mickie gets a Hangman’s Neckbreaker for 2, but Jillian recovers and hits an elbow. Melina hits the ropes, but Maria trips her up. Mickie gets a roll up for 2 and then finishes Jillian off with the Long Kiss Goodnight. Grade: 1.5

6) Hornswoggle McMahon defeats Carlito after Finlay slams him on top of Carlito

We are back from break and Little Mac is heading to the ring for his big matchup. Carlito is heading out and is laughing his way to the ring. The bell rings and we get a staredown in the ring. Carlito peppers Hornswoggle with a couple of slaps. Carlito wants a test of strength and then drops to his knees so they can lock up. Little Mac bites, but Carlito messes with him and then shoves him down. Hornswoggle is up and then bites Carlito’s ass and then slaps him. Carlito charges, but Little Mac eludes him and heads outside. Carlito chases him around the ring, but Hornswoggle nabs JR’s hat as the chase continues. Little Mac dives under the ring and Carlito climbs back in it and then tip toes across it. He goes and peeks under the apron, but Hornswoggle pops out the other side with a bucket. Carlito is searching under the ring, but when he stands up he is doused by a bucket of water. Hornswoggle dives off the apron, but Carlito catches him and carries him into the ring. He tosses him down and then grabs his apple. He takes a bite, but before he can spit, Finlay hits the ring and gets in his face. Carlito spits the apple at Finlay and Fit crushes him with a clothesline. Finlay slams Hornswoggle on top of Carlito and Little Mac picks up the win to send Carlito packing. Little Mac spits the apple at Carlito and heads to the back with Finlay. Grade: 1.5

– We look outside and see that the torch bearer is approaching the arena as we head off to our final break.

– We are back from break and find out that, in addition to the return of Ric Flair, Triple H and Jeff Hardy will take on Snitsky and Umaga next week in Charlotte, NC. And with that, we have our main event segment as World Champion Randy Orton is heading to the ring. Orton stars with “and then there was none” as he runs down the list of those he has annihilated. He says he has managed to do the impossible and beaten all that there is to beat. The crowd is chanting for “Y2J” as Randy says it is time for the torch to be passed. We cut outside and see the marathon runner finally heading into the arena. Orton says he deserves and has earned this. The runner comes into the arena, but eats a clothesline on his way in. The man who laid him out has his back to us and raises his arms out. We cut back to Orton in the ring who is shocked. The crowd is yelling for Y2J as the SAVE_US video plays on the screen. The numbers in the code flip to Y2J and we get all too familiar countdown as the crowd is ready to explode. The timer hits zero and “Break the Walls” fires up and our Savior has returned after a 2 year absence. Orton is standing in shock as Jericho soaks in the moment. The crowd will not stop as Jericho waits it out, looking genuinely happy to be back. I will try and keep up with him here. “Welcome to RAW IS JERICHO! And this is not a mirage, this real, this is here, this is now. This is the second coming of Y2J. You remembered! I want you to take out your cell phones, text your friends, take a picture, shoot a video, make a call and tell them all that the sexy beast is back, baby! And I promise to ignite you, excite you, delight you and invite you” and I lost him there, but he is on a big time roll. He lets us know this 100% Jericho. Orton finally speaks up and asks Jericho who he thinks he is and says that the last time we saw him, he was being fired. He says Jericho us lucky he was gone or else his career would be ended by now. Orton asks him what was so important that he needed to come back and asks what he is saving us from. Jericho says he is saving us from all sorts of things that I can not possibly do justice for, but he craps all over Orton. Jericho says that most importantly he is here to save us from Orton and that he will take that Championship belt from him the first chance he gets. He says that things will never…never…never…EVER be the same again!” With that, the music hits and we get a staredown to end the show.

Final Analysis

Well, this quite the up and down show. We didn’t get much in the way of storyline development or a ton of in ring action either. The Umaga/Hardy match was pretty fun as was the continuation of the Triple H/Hardy alliance. It was great seeing Jericho back and I hope his initial momentum doesn’t stall out and that they just have him take the damn title, which is what everyone wants to see. If he blows his first few chances, we may have another Scott Steiner situation from exactly 5 years ago where a popular guy debuts to a huge pop, but fails to win the big win and falls off. Jericho is obviously a different animal than Steiner, but the main parallel works. I think the Michaels/Kennedy feud will be intriguing and should help Kennedy raise his all around game. Other than those few points, the show was pretty pedestrian. The crowd stayed pretty hot and they stepped up big time at the end for Jericho, which was great. Overall, this show will go down as a historical one but in the context of the current landscape, it could have been a lot better than it was. Final Grade: C

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